Phone Conversations
by Mystic25
Summary: Short Drabble. When Zack called Max’s apartment in “Kidz are Aiight” he got Original Cindy. Just what did he say to Cindy to get her to give out Max’s location?


Phone Conversations

Author: Mystic25

Summary: Short Drabble. When Zack called Max's apartment in "Kidz are Aiight" he got Original Cindy. Just what did he say to Cindy to get her to give out Max's location?

SPOLIERS: "The Kidz Are Aiight" Post Episode

RATING: PG (don't know the new rating system, don't wanna know, so na na!)

A/N: Just finished watching Kidz, and this scenario always intrigued me. Also I've been having a lot of online conversations about Zack and now am itching for some stand-alone Zack fics, mindless self-indulgence? I think not, more like shedding limelight where it shines so pretty.

A/N #2": This isn't a Max/Zack deal, sorry. It's focusing on them as siblings

XXXXXX

MAX AND CINDY'S APARTMENT

Cindy hopped off the bed at the ring of the phone. She was careful to not tear the edges of her Xena poster when she let it go. The poster was cheap, but Cindy cherished it, Xena was a kick ass show when she was growing up.

She walked the short distance over to the phone in her new apartment, picking up the wireless unit in one hand. "Yeah?"

"_Max!"_

The voice was distinctly male, but one that she didn't recognize. "Who is this?" Max never mentioned any guys calling her crib, not especially when she was _supposed_ to have a deal with Logan.

"I need to speak to Max," the caller on the other end didn't answer her question, speaking in a low, but hostile-sounding tone. 

"Not until you give me a name," Cindy informed. "I don't just hand my girl over to a mystery boy who calls after the lights have gone out outside."

"_Can you just get her on the damn phone?"_

The guy's pissiness rang in Cindy's ear. _Who does this playa think he is?_ "Original Cindy ain't gonna get nobody until you drop the verbal attitude and tell me what your deal is." Cindy was very protective of her friends, and Max was like a sister to her so she was _very_ protective of her. She didn't care how pissy theguy got; she wasn't going to tell him anything.

There was a sound of rushing air over the phone that Cindy believed either to be the wind or an exasperated sigh from the caller.

"_Look, I don't have time for this crap. I need to get in touch with her, just tell her that Zack called."_

_Zack?_ The name brought forth a distant memory from Cindy's mind. About a monthago, a former messenger at Jam Pony, whom she thought was named _Sam,_ had interrupted her call with Max, claiming to be a guy named Zack. He wasn't a bad looking brother; pretty hot lookin' even to Cindy's eyes, but he had played Cindy's crew royally by taking Herbal's job and Cindy didn't trust him.

"I don't know what your issue is with Max; Sam, or _Zack_ or whoeva you are," Cindy was trying to set the boy straight. "But I suggest you step off. I didn't get a good vibe off you before, and I'm sure as hell not gettin' one off you now. So I'm gonna save you the embarrassment of a full smack down and just hang up on your ass-"

There was a loud crash, like an explosion on the other end that made Cindy jump.

Zack had punched the side of the phone booth and had ripped a hole right through one of the metal sides._"Cindy, right?" _Zack had made himself forget his memories back at Manticore to keep from having them extracted from him by the base doctors for use in Lydecker's recon in locating the others. But try as he might he couldn't get rid of his memories of Max. He cared about all his siblings but she held a special place in his emotions.He couldn't forget anything about her or the time he had spent where she worked.

The caller had identified his name. He _was _who Cindy thought he was. The boy from Jam Pony who had run out on his job."Don't act like you got an in now boy."

_"I don't have time to go into melodramatics, just shut up and get my sister on the damn phone!"_

The "shut up" line alone was enough to send Cindy reeling, but before she could launch a counterattack she was struck by his last remark. "_Sister?_ What are you-" Her brain clicked on what he was saying. "Max is your sister? She never told me she had a brotha before." Cindy paused to take all this in. Max never mentioned anything about her family, and certainly Cindy would never have believed that her girl, who was clearly Hispanic, would have a white boy for a brother. "You on the real with this boo?"

"_No I made it up in the last three seconds to screw with your head,"_ Zack snapped back from his end. Original Cindy was a piece of work. He had run for two hours through the woods outside Manticore before reaching this payphone. He felt more exhausted then the time he ran barefootfor overtenmiles in the snow when he escaped the first time. He was in no mood to listen to one of Max's friends ramble. _"Did I pass your damn inspection, cause I didn't call all this way to listen to your voice."_

"Cool your jets boy," Cindy insisted, finally allowing herself to believe him. "Max is out now, but I'll let her know you called-"

"Where is she?" he hissed.

"Your persistent aren't you?" Cindy retorted. Brother or no, no one talked to Original Cindy like that.

"_This is important damnit!"_ Zack had lost all patience and was using only sheer willpower to keep his voice lowsothathe didn't wind up giving away his location.

"Kay, calm down," Cindy could sense urgency in Zack's voice, so she dropped her attitude down a level. "She's over at her boys place."

"Just give me the number," Zack spat. He never asked Original Cindy who the hell Max's "boy" was, and Cindy didn't elaborate any further. She didn't know the family dynamics of Manticore; she just assumed that any brother of Max's would know about Max's hookups.

The number Original Cindy gave Zack didn't sound familiar, but he suddenly knew whose number it would be. He slammed the phone down, only to pick it up a second later and dial a new set of digits.

Cindy hung the phone up slowly like she had just been slapped in the face. Her brain worked overtime to process the new information it had just picked up. Max apparently had more secrets then just the ones Cindy knew about.

Zack waited for the call to connect, frantically looking behind him every second for any sign of a tail. Now that he had no one to talk to he was becoming paranoid. He had escaped Manticore as a kid; but being dragged back as an adult who had been out in the real world made the base more terrible then he had remembered. There were no siblings to talk to in the barracks at night to ease the quick paced, duty ridden, terror of a life they all had been born into. This time he was a man in there alone, being torutured and fighting with every bit of strength he had to protect their lives.

The call connected after the third ring, but Zack had lost count around the first one.

"_Hello?"_

Zack was so relieved to hear her voice that had he allowed himself to succumb to emotions he probably would've broken down. "_Max!"_

"_Zack?"_ Her voice betrayed her confusion. She didn't expect to hear from him on the phone, or at all.

Zack listened to the sound of her voice, to let it ground him, while he kept darting his eyes to the thick trees of the forest behind him. He was their CO, of all of them. But the time spent at Manticore had been hell, and he felt too cracked at that moment to take any authority.

_"I need you…"_

XXXXXXXXX

I know probably a lot of M/Z shippers were using up this epi to fuel their own fanfics, but to me this just was a deal with Max wanting to be there for her brother. That's just my take.

I know I might get flamed about Zack telling Original Cindy that Max is his sister, but that's the only realistic way I could think of for Cindy to give out Logan's number. I know Zack could've found it himself, but I was going under the assumption that Zack was in a hurry, and that, when he met up with Logan the other few times he never bothered to ask his last name. I mean they don't exactly see eye to eye. And in the frenzied state that Zack was in after escaping Manticore I don't think he would've bothered to check the phone book.

R/R please

Peace

Mystic


End file.
